Extension Act and for experiment station work are discussed elsewhere, and it should not be inferred from this discussion that it is believed that they should be apportioned on the same bases as the funds for instruction.

TABLE 3.-Percentage Negro population was of total population, 1930, and percentage of total State allotments from various Federal funds allocated to Negro land-grant colleges in 17 Southern States, fiscal year ended June 30, 1936 1

1 For population data see U. S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Statistical Abstract of United States, 1936 (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1937), p. 18. Financial data were obtained from Walter J. Greenleaf, Preliminary Report: Land-Grant Colleges and Universities: Year Ended June 30, 1936, U. S. Office of Education, Circular 168 (multilithed, 1936), pp. 20-21, revised from records of the Office of Education.

Federal laws authorizing these appropriations require a "just and equitable" division of the funds between each State's white and Negro land-grant colleges.

Including funds from FERA, WPA, AAA, etc.

These other funds include: Other land-grant funds, military training funds, Smith-Lever, Capper-Ketcham, Additional Cooperative Extension, Purnell, Hatch-Adams, ClarkeMcNary, Not any of the $6,570,134 from these eight funds went to Negro institutions.

CHAPTER III

EXPERIMENT STATIONS

In the discussions preceding the establishment of colleges of agriculture the need for experimentation was recognized, and it was expected that, when these colleges were established, scientific investigations would be undertaken by them. Once instruction in agriculture was started, the needs for research in the subject became obvious. Professor Roberts, writing of his experiences as a teacher in the early days of Iowa State College of Agriculture, said:

I began to tell the students what I knew about farming. It did not take me long to run short of material and then I began to consult the library. I might as well have looked for cranberries on the Rocky Mountains as for material for teaching agriculture in that library.1

The early attempts at agricultural research have been described as follows by True:

Professor Hilgard [an early pioneer] dates the beginning of the experiment station movement in this country from the time of the meeting of the representatives of the land-grant colleges at Chicago in 1871 ... but before this Professor Johnson and his associates in the Yale Scientific School in Connecticut has inaugurated work looking toward the establishment of such stations. The experiments of Lawes and Gilbert at Rothamsted, England, the investigations of Boussingault in France, and the organized work of experiment stations in Germany, had already attracted attention in this country.2

The first State-supported experiment station was established at Wesleyan University at Middletown, Connecticut, in 1875; this station was later removed to Sheffield Scientific School. Steps were also taken in 1873 at the University of California toward the establishment of a station, but this action did not become effective until after the station had been established at Wesleyan.3 By 1887, in addition to these

1 Isaac P. Roberts, Autobiography of a Farm Boy (Albany: J. B. Lyon Company, 1916), p. 160.

'Alfred C. True, A History of Agricultural Education in the United States, p. 127. 3 Ibid., p. 128.

two, stations had been established by the States of Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York at Cornell University, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wisconsin.*

Federal Legislation

Hatch Act. The Hatch Act, providing Federal aid for the support of agricultural experiment stations in each State, was passed by Congress in 1887. This Act states that "the sum of fifteen thousand dollars per annum is hereby appropriated to each State, to be specially provided for by Congress in the appropriations from year to year . . .". The five distinctive features of the Hatch Act legislation are:

1. The statement of purpose, which is phrased as follows: That in order to aid in acquiring and diffusing among the people of the United States useful and practical information on subjects connected with agriculture, and to promote scientific investigation and experiment respecting the principles and applications of agricultural science, there shall be established, under direction of the college or colleges or agricultural department of colleges in each State or Territory established, or which may hereafter be established, in accordance with the provisions of an act approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled “An act donating public lands to the several States and Territories which may provide colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts," or any of the supplements to said act, a department to be known and designated as an "agricultural experiment station.” 6

2. Suggestions regarding the types of investigation to be made:

... it shall be the object and duty of said experiment stations to conduct original researches or verify experiments on the physiology of plants and animals; the diseases to which they are severally subject, with the remedies for the same; the chemical composition of useful plants at their different stages of growth; the comparative advantages of rotative cropping as pursued under a varying series of crops; the capacity of new plants or trees for acclimation; the analysis of soils and water; the chemical composition of manures, natural or artificial, with experiments designed to test their comparative effects on crops of

4 Ibid.

5 Sec. 5. For text of Act see Appendix A.

6 Sec. 1.

different kinds; the adaptation and value of grasses and forage plants; the composition and digestibility of the different kinds of food for domestic animals; the scientific and economic questions involved in the production of butter and cheese; and such other researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States as may in each case be deemed advisable, having due regard to the varying conditions and needs of the respective States and Territories. 7

The Appropriation Act of 1889 added the following duty to the work of the stations:

as far as practicable, all such stations shall devote a portion of their work to the examination and classification of the soils of their respective States and Territories, with a view to securing more extended knowledge and better development of their agricultural capabilities.

The Appropriation Act of 1901 made provision for the stations to cooperate with the Secretary of Agriculture “in establishing and maintaining experimental grass stations

3. Relationship to the United States Commissioner of Agriculture (now the Secretary):

That in order to secure, as far as practicable, uniformity of methods and results in the work of said stations, it shall be the duty of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture to furnish forms, as far as practicable, for the tabulation of results of investigation or experiment; to indicate, from time to time, such lines of inquiry as to him shall seem most important; and, in general, to furnish such advice and assistance as will best promote the purposes of this Act. It shall be the duty of each of said stations, annually, on or before the first day of February, to make to the governor of the State or Territory in which it is located a full and detailed report of its operations, including a statement of receipts and expenditures, a copy of which report shall be sent to each of said stations, to the said Commissioner of Agriculture, and to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States.10

In this connection a later section of the Act should be noted. It is as follows:

nothing in this act shall be construed to impair or modify the legal relation existing between any of the said colleges and the government of the States or Territories in which they are respectively located.11

4. The use of annual grants. The financial aid that had been given to States prior to 1887 was in the form of land or lump sums of money and was in the nature of an endowment, which is the term used in the First Morrill Act.

5. Dissemination of the research done by the stations:

bulletins or reports of progress shall be published at said stations at least once in three months, one copy of which shall be sent to each newspaper in the States or Territories in which they are respectively located, and to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may request the same, and as far as the means of the station will permit.12

These provisions introduce possibilities of a larger measure of Federal control than was provided for under the First Morrill Act. These possibilities are in the discretionary authority to be exercised by the Commissioner of Agriculture (now Secretary); the provision for annual grants; the definite statement of purpose; and the detailed statement regarding the types of investigation to be undertaken with the funds.

Adams Act. In 1906 Congress passed the Adams Act, authorizing $5,000 a year to each State and Territory for the experiment stations organized under the Hatch Act. Beginning with the second year this sum was increased at the rate of $2,000 a year until the total for each State and Territory became $15,000. This Act differed from its predecessor. Expenditure was limited to ". . . original researches or experiments bearing directly on the agricultural industry of the United States. . . ." 13 The responsibility for "the proper administration" of the law was placed in the hands of the Secretary of Agriculture.14 The Adams Act limits more rigidly than does the Hatch Act the type of investigation that may be undertaken by the experiment stations, and this difference is recognized in the administration of the two Acts. In actual operation the "projects" are approved by the Office of Experiment Stations of the Department of Agriculture in advance of the expenditure of funds.15

Purnell Act.-Under the maximum provisions of the Hatch Act and the Adams Act, each State and Territory received $30,000 annually from Federal sources for the support of an

12 Sec. 4.

13 Sec. 1. For text of Act see Appendix A.

14 Sec. 4.

15 True, op. cit., p. 233.